From millionaire views to bygone relics, this is one of Sydney's best walks

Sydney Harbour has at least 70 kilometres of spectacular shoreline, yet so much of it is secret. Some of it is private property (around Point Piper, for example, where former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull owns a chunk), much of it contains heritage sites and some of it is parkland. All of it has fabulous views.

Inveterate walkers John Faulkner, former minister for defence, and Lachlan Harris, former press secretary to Kevin Rudd, have come up with a plan to create the Bondi to Manly Walk. It intends to join all the dots together of walks around the harbour. But until that happens we are left with little glimpses of glory you can walk in snatches.

Milk Beach in Vaucluse, one of Australia's most affluent suburbs.Credit:Wolter Peeters

One I discovered recently is the Rose Bay to Watsons Bay walk – known as one of the most scenic coastal walking tracks in the Sydney area.

Part of this walking trail is the Hermitage Foreshore Track that runs from Bayview Hill Road (just north of Rose Bay) to Nielsen Park. Some of it takes you through the back streets of these harbourside suburbs – where you will find yourself coveting the views of some of our best-heeled Sydneysiders. But mostly the path meanders along the shoreline through glorious beachside bushlands.

Advertisement

Strickland House has appeared in feature features and TV shows.Credit:Robert Pearce/Fairfax Media

I'd never heard of Queen's Beach, Tingara Beach and Milk Beach until I ambled by them one recent Saturday with some friends. They are heartbreakingly beautiful, each one. Clearly many others think this, too, as the day we were there, there was a "marry me" sign left on one of the beaches; clearly some one got carried away by the romantic setting.

Hermit Bay was a quaint little place we could have stopped until rain loomed and we decided to box on – nixing the idea of fish and chips at Watsons Bay as a reward at the end of our walk – for the more genteel, but equally enticing offerings at The Nielsen, in Nielsen Park. I'll have their Sonoma sourdough with chive butter any day over deep-fried goodness. We sheltered here from the ominous clouds hanging over Vaucluse, fortified ourselves with food to take us onto the next relic of a bygone era, Strickland House.

It felt like a rundown Downton Abbey on arrival. It wasn't until we looked closer that we recognised it as the setting for Baz Luhrmann's Australia, where it doubled as Government House in Darwin. It's also starred in Underbelly, The Apprentice and The Farmer Wants a Wife.

Bridge enthusiasts, known as pontists will point out the charming suspension footbridge at Parsley Bay that is more than a century old, truly one of the rare gems of Sydney Harbour. As is the sandstone bushland around it. Next, it is through suburb streets again, which take you to Watsons Bay where we ran for the ferry, which took us back to the beginning in an eight-minute ride.

This walk truly is one of Sydney's best kept secrets. Just don't tell anyone.